We celebrated two birthdays yesterday. Sheila and Ellie share the same birthday so Sheila took the day off from work so we could celebrate together.
Ellie didn't know that we would be spending her birthday with her so Sheila, Will (Pop) and I surprised Ellie by showing up at Echo science and nature museum on the Burlington waterfront. Whitney simply told Ellie that they were going on a birthday adventure. When Ellie and Whitney walked into the museum, Ellie immediately saw us in the lobby and greeted us with a big smile on her face.
Gee had previously purchased a "5th Birthday" tiara and a sash and it was gift-wrapped for Ellie to open when she arrived at the museum. Before we left the lobby, Ellie had opened this first gift and put on her tiara and sash. Everywhere we went, people wished Ellie a happy birthday and commented on her tiara!
In this next photo, you can see that Ellie was pleasantly surprised by finding us waiting for her at the museum...
Ellie is opening her first birthday gift of the day, the tiara and sash...
Her sash is on and, just out of the frame, mommy is fitting the tiara for her head...
Then we headed into the museum. Below, Ellie is being shown where she lives on the three dimensional relief map of Vermont...
This next display was in the Curious George exhibit. This particular display was about stacking blocks on a turntable to view the changing shadow as you rotate the turntable and/or redirect the light...
We had thought that the shadow of Ellie's tower was simply being projected on the white screen in the background of the above photos but when we went to the other side of that wall that contains the screen, we found that the screen is transparent and resembling a window of a building...
The birthday girls are posing for a photo with Curious George...
You can't tell in the photo below but the lake is still covered in a thin sheet of ice. The sheet of ice was so thin that it was bending to the will of the waves beneath the ice... it was an interesting effect... and, although not planned, the photo above shows Ellie changing the frequency of a wave exhibit in the museum...
After spending a couple of hours at the museum, we headed to The Olive Garden for lunch. We had appetizers, salad, breadsticks, our meals and then dessert. The staff sang Happy Birthday to Ellie too!
A birthday selfie...
After lunch, Ellie and Whitney came to our house so Ellie could open the rest of her birthday gifts. Ellie enjoys baking so she received a lot of kitchen baking supplies...
Shortly after this last photo was captured, Papa began nodding off. I was sound asleep in an armchair when Ellie and Whitney headed for home. I just could not keep my eyes open any longer. I started losing energy while we were still at the museum. I'm still recovering from my recent health issues... well, I hope I'm recovering. It seems to be taking an awfully long time!
We had a really nice time with Ellie, Whitney and Pop and we were happy to spend the day with Ellie on her birthday!
(I just remembered that I also shot a few video clips while we were at the museum. I haven't even looked at those clips yet. I suppose I'll add a short video in another blog entry.)
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